Not as Shy as One Might Think

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Britain’s Prince William, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, and their son, Prince George, leave after the christening of their daughter, Princess Charlotte, at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, England.CreditCreditMatt Dunham/Associated Press

SATURDAY PUZZLE — Have you grown weary of greeting new constructors? We have another debut this week, by Steve Overton and it’s a very interesting one: It’s clean, it’s interesting and Mr. Overton has craftily sneaked his name into the crossword at 12D.

Well, sort of; the answer is OVERTONE, as in “Suggestion,” but that’s close enough for me.

There’s not a whole lot here that’s new, but there are some lively entries. I always like a bit of DERRING DO in my grid, and LET US PRAY makes a comeback after a 35-year hiatus. I also liked G.I. JANE, NO CAN DO and DREAM ON.

Finally, check out the end of this column for some exciting Will Shortz news.

Tricky Clues

■ 22A: This was a tough one for me. Now that I’ve solved it, it’s pretty obvious, but if you have long ODDS on something, it’s unlikely to happen.

■ 25A: I don’t care what people say about pop culture. “Prince George’s mom,” KATE, is how I broke into today’s puzzle.

■ 42D: Everyone, all together now: “But it’s a dry heat.” Sorry, the mention of “Western heat?” made me daydream about warmer climes. The answer is SIX GUN.

Constructor’s Notes

Greetings, solvers. Let me confess. I struggle with late-week crosswords. More so than you might expect from someone whose puzzle was deemed fit to appear in The New York Times (on a Saturday, no less).

If there were a 300-word blurb-worthy story about this puzzle and its construction/constructor, you’d be the first ones I’d share it with. I was just striving for clean, lively and gee-even-I-could-solve-this-easy.

Will Shortz ultimately provided a more sensible and Saturday-appropriate set of clues (thanks, Will.)

Hope you enjoy(ed) the solve and I’d love your opinion.

A genuine honor, thank you and have a great weekend.

I would say you accomplished your task, Mr. OVERTONE.

Your thoughts?

This Sunday, February 19, Will Shortz will be on “CBS Sunday Morning” talking about crosswords and table tennis, a sport that he is not at all fanatical about. In fact, Sunday will be 1,600 days in a row that he has played the game. We wish him at least 1,600 more.